1. Statement of the Technical Field
The inventive arrangements relate generally to methods and apparatus for video systems, and more particularly to digital video disc (DVD) storage media.
2. Description of the Related Art
DVD (digital video disc or digital versatile disc) is an optical disc technology which can store much more data than a CD-ROM. In particular, using conventional red laser technology, a single layer DVD can hold 4.7 GB of data on each of its two sides and a dual layer DVD can hold 9.0 GB of data on each of its two sides. In comparison, a CD-ROM can hold approximately 600 MB of data. Due to their large storage capacity and their convenience of use, DVD's have quickly become the preferred storage medium for video replay, replacing both video cassettes tapes and laser discs. In particular, a typical DVD-video can hold a 133-minute movie on one of its two sides using MPEG-2 file compression. The other side of the DVD oftentimes is used for DVD identification and labeling purposes.
There are potentially two primary presentation formats for movies recorded on DVD's, namely standard definition (SD) which has either a 16:9 or 4:3 aspect ratio, and high definition (HD) which has a 16:9 aspect ratio. However, because a typical single layer DVD only can hold up to a 133 minute SD movie on a side, DVD-videos are usually provided only with one of the two presentation formats. In some instances, however, both sides of the DVD are used to provide both presentation formats. Specifically, a standard definition version of a movie can be provided on one side of the DVD while a high definition version of the movie could be provided on the other side. Unfortunately, when both sides of the DVD are used for data storage, there is little room for DVD identification and labeling. Accordingly, what is needed is a DVD storage technology which can be used to store both SD and HD versions of a movie on a single side of a DVD. Moreover, such a DVD should be compatible with existing SD-DVD players.